


Zora Courting, or Zorting

by InfraVioletUltraRed



Series: From Radish Farmer to the Zora Royal Consort [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 08:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14039994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfraVioletUltraRed/pseuds/InfraVioletUltraRed
Summary: Something of a first date.





	Zora Courting, or Zorting

You sat down at the edge of the pool, taking off your boots and placing them next to your hip, then sinking your feet into the water, glad for its coolness and how refreshing it felt on your sweaty skin. _There must be something special about the water here in the Domain_ , you thought, sighing and leaning back onto your elbows, looking up at the clear blue sky.

A loud whoop and a splash disturbed your (rather disorganized) train of thought and you sat up, looking towards the source of the sound—even though you knew whoever it was had probably been a Zora and was still underwater. You stayed sitting up, waiting to see who it was.

…they were still underwater. Now you were leaning forward, wondering. Were they okay?

As you were about to dive in and swim over towards where you’d heard the splash, so ready to dive that your face was near the water, that was when they rose from the water.

Well. It _had_ been a Zora. You were lucky he hadn’t come up quickly or he would have broken your nose. Instead of doing that, he just laughed while you flung yourself back. The both of you caught your breath, and then he said, “Impressive, right?”

“I mean,” you said, huffing a little, “yes. But I could have done without being startled twice, Sidon.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to.”

“No, it’s fine. Why, though?”

He shrugged. “Impulse. Desire to be flashy.” _Interesting,_ you thought. A generally humble Zora such as the prince wanting to be flashy, worrying about being impressive. _What an odd display._

He sat with you for a little while, talking—about your ride to the Domain, how things had been going, other small details of your lives, and then he abruptly sat up and slid himself into the water.

“What are you doing?” you asked him.

“I saw a really lovely lotus over there and I was going to go get it.”

“Oh. Alright.” You drummed your fingers on your knee as you waited for him to come back. When he did, he presented the lotus to you. It… it was very nice.  You flushed a little. “Thank you, Sidon. It is a nice flower.”

He grinned, and you studied his teeth. They were so sharp, so white… you wondered what they felt like to the touch. He moved to exit the water, but then apparently thought better of it, sinking back down and saying “have you eaten? I’ll be right back.”

You lay down at the edge of the water, waiting for Sidon to finish doing whatever it was he had left you to do. You would simply watch the clouds or something while you waited.

You barely noticed when your eyes slipped shut.

You were teetering on the edge of being asleep when you felt something dripping on you. You opened your eyes to see that it was water dripping on you… off a bunch of fish Sidon was holding, standing above you. You sat up again, rubbing your eyes and the back of your neck. “What are you doing with those?”

“I, um, brought them for you.” He said. You sighed and lurched towards your boots, feeling in one of them for the knife you always brought with you. Finding it, you straightened.

Sidon stepped back, unsure of what exactly your being armed meant. You gestured for him to hand you a fish. “They’re dead, right?”

He nodded.

“Good.” He handed one over and you plunged the knife into it, to gut it. “Link eats them roasted whole, but I don’t. I _have to_ gut and scale them before I cook them. How do you tend to prepare them?”

“I—I mean, Zoras—tend to just eat them whole, or in bites, but no cooking is necessary.”

“Well, I don’t want to get sick.” You smiled, laughing drily.

The two of you ate your fish snack and then, as you sat by the tiny fire you’d built to cook the fish, Sidon invited you into the water with him.

“I don’t know that I should. I mean, I did just eat.”

“You could just sit on me while I float, if that sounds preferable?”

You could agree to that. “Okay.” You settled into position then, and gently, he propelled you both out into the open water.

You were still out in the water, talking and laughing, when the sun began to set. The fire was still burning where you’d been seated, quickly becoming more visible than the daylight that was rapidly fading around it, and as the moon became more prominent in the sky, it hit you.

 _This has all been an elaborate courtship ritual._  It wasn’t even that different from Hylian date behavior—flowers, food, one partner trying to impress the other… how could you have missed all the hints?

You felt awful. You’d been so unyielding this whole time, and Sidon was giving it all he had, since he’d known you’d arrived at the Domain today. And you fell asleep in the middle of it. What a jerk.

“Hey, Sidon?” You said quietly, as though anyone could hear you out here. Although, there could be other Zora under the water eavesdropping…

He turned his attention from the starry sky to you. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry I ruined our date today.”

“Oh. So you’ve deduced that that’s what it was?”

“Well, I think so. I guess I could just be reading into it, that I wanted it to be—”

He raised a hand from the water and placed it on your lips, leaving a wet spot on them and down your chin. “No, that’s… it was. At least, I’d hoped so. But you seemed bored.”

“I didn’t get it at first. I realized once we got out on the water.”

“Well, at least the big finish got to you.”

“No,” you replied, “I liked all of it.”

He sat up then, throwing you into the water by mistake. Immediately, he groaned and helped you onto his back to return to where the fire was still burning.

You sat next to it while your clothes dried (still on your body, to avoid any implications of impropriety—apparently, you were right, the water had eyes and ears aplenty as everyone wanted the prince to find a spouse). In the quiet, and the slight chill, Sidon had wrapped an arm around you while you two continued your conversation from before.

“I wasn’t bored,” you told him, “I just was… I don’t know, upset that you kept running off to do stuff in the middle of us spending time together. I guess.”

“That’s understandable. It certainly sounds rude when you put it that way. But you’re not upset now?”

“No. This turned out really nice.”

“Well, other than the—” he gestured at your clothes.

“No, that’s nice, too. Gives you an excuse to keep me warm.”

He grinned. “That I can do, uninterrupted.”


End file.
